How to make a broken iPhone costume

a broken iphone

Since the new iPhone 5 just came out, it’s now safe to say that technology is always in style. Google, Facebook and the iPhone are now king. But not only is the iPhone becoming an accessory — so are broken iPhones. Follow these instructions for this homemade Halloween costume, and you'll be sure to have your friends cracking up!

Be everyone's worst nightmare:

Supplies needed (prices may vary by location)

2 white cardboard display boards for front ($2.99 each)

2 white foam boards for sides ($2.99 each)

20 ounces of black paint (57 cents)

20 ounces of gray paint (57 cents)

20 ounces of white paint (57 cents)

24-inch by 36-inch plastic frame ($20.00)

Clear plastic ball ($1.00)

Silver scrapbook sheet ($1.00)

Home supplies you’ll have

Ruler

Black sharp-pointed felt-tip pen

Pencil

Scissors

Utility knife

Paint brush

White paper

Duct tape

Plastic wrap

E600 glue

Poster of an image you'd see on an iPhone

1

Front to back

Take a pencil, and outline a 24-inch by 36-inch rectangle on each white poster board. Use your ruler to make straight lines on all of the sides, but when you get to the corners, round out the edges (just like the corners on an iPhone). Now take your utility knife and cut out the two rectangles you just drew. When doing this, make sure you are on a safe-and-sturdy surface. After both rectangles are cut out, match them up together and make sure they are even. You can trim the sides and edges as needed.

2

Making the screen

Then grab your poster, measure out a 20-inch by 29-inch portion of it, cut it out with your scissors or utility knife, and glue it onto the poster board. Trace an oval at the top of the posterboard and a second one underneath it. Make sure the second oval is smaller. Paint the ear piece at the top with black ink. Then draw a small circle on the left for the camera, and paint it black.

3

Touch screen

Next, grab your plastic wrap and tear off a piece about two feet long. Squeeze a small amount of gray paint onto a paper towel, and very lightly paint the plastic wrap so it is still partially transparent. After the plastic wrap dries, lay it on top of your poster, line it up on the ends, and cut off any excess plastic wrap. Once you have it at your desired size, glue the plastic wrap onto your poster.

4

Adding detail

Get ready for a lot of tracing in this step! Using your ruler and pencil, trace the words, "AT&T," "4G," "90%," "Wednesday, October 31st," and "lock" onto your poster board, and cut them out. Be sure to keep the letters small enough to fit on the screen. You're not done yet, though! Next, draw the corresponding symbols onto another piece of poster board (the camera, battery, lock symbol, four battery bars in the left-hand corner, and the square with curvy edges for the slidebar), and cut those out as well. The easiest way to do this is to either grab an iPhone or Google picture to work from while you're tracing.

5

Trace and cut

Now grab a white sheet of paper and your gray paint, and cover the entire sheet in gray. After the paint dries, sketch and cut out the words, "slide to un" onto your paper, in the same size and shape you used for the text in Step 4. Then, using both the words and symbols from the previous step and the ones you just made, match up the text labels with their corresponding symbols. Lay all of these out on your screen (once again referring to your iPhone or iPhone picture), and glue them down.

6

One click away

Using a pencil, trace a small circle at the bottom of your iPhone, and cut it out using your utility knife. This is for the button at the bottom of your screen. Grab the clear plastic ball, and cut it in half (it should look like a contact lens). Paint the inside and outside of the ball white. After it dries, place the ball into the hole so the protruding side is inside the costume, and duct tape it onto the back side of the cardboard.

7

Cracked screen

You will need the 24-inch by 36-inch plastic frame for this step. Take off the plastic front, but be sure to keep the plastic that's covered over it in place. This will give you a better effect for the shattered screen. Draw a small circle with your utility knife, and fill the circle in with scratches to start your shattered effect. Using the circle as your origin, use your utility knife to draw straight lines coming off of the circle. Connect random lines to each other, like a spider web, to make the cracks look more realistic. When you're done, glue the plastic piece onto your board with E600 glue. Once the glue has dried, take the scissors and round the edges of your plastic to match the cardboard.

8

The big apple

For the back of the phone, trace the Apple symbol onto the silver scrapbook paper. Be sure to make the apple the entire size of the scrapbook paper. After you cut out your symbol and glue it to the back of your iPhone Halloween costume, you'll need the black paint to make a small circle in the left-hand corner of your phone; this will be your camera lens.

9

The sides

To finish your homemade Halloween costume, you'll need the foam poster boards for the sides of your phone (foam is great because it's light weight). Grab your three 20 x 30 x 3/16 white foam poster boards, lay them down, and cut all three boards in half (lengthwise). Next, measure seven inches from the top and mark it with a pencil. Then, measure 13 inches from the top, marking it again. Now, draw a circle between the two marks you just made and cut the circle out; this is one of your arm holes. Repeat this on the other foam poster board for your other arm.

10

Adjustments

At this point, your two sides with the armholes should be a little shorter than your front and back pieces. Take the extra foam piece that you already cut out, and attach about six inches each to the side pieces to lengthen them. When attaching the pieces together, make sure to only put duct tape on one side of the foam boards.

11

Coming together

Lay the front side of the cracked phone board facedown. Have a friend hold the 36-inch side you just made straight up at a 90-degree angle while you duct tape the inside. Do the same for the other side. Be sure to use a lot of duct tape to hold the sides together sturdily. Once those sides are secure, line up the back side of the phone with the front side across the two side pieces, and secure those with the duct tape as above.